On Monday, federal judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. correctly ruled that the Obama administration is not obeying the 1996 law which outlawed the destruction of human embryonic stem cells. In March 2009, the president issued an executive order expanding federal funding of human embryo research.

Judge Lamberth ruled that the federal funding by the Obama administration for such research violated a 1996 law prohibiting federal money for research in which an embryo was destroyed. Today's "The Wall Street Journal" reported that opponents of Obama's federal funding for human embryonic stem cell destruction research said that such research "leads to the destruction of the embryo" which "is tantmount to taking a life, and have opposed such experiments on ethical grounds."

In the article, David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical Association is quoted as saying: "People forget that each one of us was an embryo, and if someone destroyed us for biological parts, we wouldn't be around today." He also was quoted by LifeNews.com saying, "This case highlights the harm that diverting federal funds away from proven effective research poses to those patients who are waiting for cures. We are grateful that the Court also recognizes the clarity of the law and the harm that funding illegal and unethical embryo-destroying research poses to ethical researchers."

For the first time in many years, five Democrats earned a 100% rating in the recently published Christian Coalition of America's Congressional Scorecard. One of the possible reasons for this is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a plethora of Democrat votes to play with whenever a key piece of legislation came up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and she did not need their votes.

One would prefer to think that these Democrats acted out of principle and would have voted the way they did even if one of the Speaker's key pieces of legislation would go down to defeat without their votes. The five Democrats who earned a 100% rating in the 2010 Congressional Scorecard this year are: Congressmen Bobby Bright, 2nd district, Alabama; Travis Childers,1st district, Mississippi; Gene Taylor, 4th district, Mississippi; Dan Boren, 2nd district, Oklahoma; and Lincoln Davis, 4th district, Tennessee. Whatever the reasons for their perfect voting record, Christian Coalition of America commends each of them.

What is also astounding is the fact that there were so many 100% scores and 0% scores in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives revealing a highly partisan Congress. For example, in the Senate, there were 34 Republicans (out of 40 Republicans) with 100% scores (no Democrat Senator earned a score of 100%) and there were 48 Democrats (out of 57 Democrats) who received scores of 0% (no Republican Senator received a score of 0%.)

Congressman Steve King reacted last week to the atheists' attempt to ensure that our nation's motto, "In God We Trust," and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag are not permanently engraved in the new Capitol Hill Visitors Center (CHVC). Congressman King said: "This lawsuit is another attempt by liberal activists to rewrite history and deny that America's Judeo-Christian heritage is an essential foundation stone of our great nation."

Thankfully in America, there are still young Americans who are not afraid to strike back at the left-wing's political correctness movement.  And a great example of this occurred last Saturday when several hundred graduating high school seniors stood in protest during their graduation ceremony at Pace High School in Santa Rosa County, Florida because the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had filed a lawsuit against the high school administration claiming the principal and some teachers supported religion.   

Americans' religious rights and First Amendment rights continue to be eroded as evidenced by the jailing of a black pastor from a Berkeley, California church last week. He was the first person convicted -- two months ago -- under Oakland's law preventing pro-life protesters from coming within 8 feet of anyone entering an abortion clinic.

The Union City pastor, Walter Hoye, received a $1,000 fine, 30 days in jail (although in the future pro-lifers can be actually be put in jail for up to two years) and 3 years' probation. This courageous pastor told the judge: "I believe that an unjust law is no law at all." Pastor Hoye even answered Alameda Superior Court Judge Hing's question of whether or not he would abide by an order to stay 100 yards away from the Oakland abortion clinic with a principled "No."

It seems that the battle in America to protect the First Amendment rights of Americans never seems to end. Yesterday, the 10th United States Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado heard arguments on whether or not to affirm the free speech rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution for a high school student named Erica Corder.

Erica was punished by the Lewis-Palmer High School near Colorado Springs in 2006 when she gave remarks as a class valedictorian at her high school graduation. Her attorneys argue that school officials intimidated her and forced her into writing an apology for expressing her religious beliefs in her 30-second message at graduation.

Religious rights in America took two steps forward and one step backward this week. In a very pleasant surprise yesterday, the United States Supreme Court unanimously allowed the city of Pleasant Grove City, Utah, to choose which donated monuments, including a Ten Commandments monument, belong in a city public park. The Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision, ruled that the city could refuse to display Summum's Seven Aphorisms in its public park.

This means that cities and state governments around America will no longer be forced with threats by the ACLU to include displays devoted to atheism just because the city or state government wants to display a Nativity scene. Most Americans will recall the anti-Christian bigotry which Democrat Governor Christine Gregoire displayed in Washington state last Christmas when she allowed a hateful anti-Christian display to be so prominent in the Washington state capitol building next to a Christmas display.

Christian Coalition of America played a leading role several years ago in ensuring that military chaplains may continue to pray in the name of Jesus by helping members of Congress such as Congressmen Walter Jones, R-NC, Todd Akin, R-MO and Duncan Hunter, R-CA pass legislation ensuring that military chaplains have full religious freedom.

Now Senator Jim DeMint, Republican from South Carolina, has said that there is a provision in Barack Obama's stimulus legislation which is "an attack on people of faith." In both the House bill, passed last week with no Republicans voting for it, and the Senate bill, which may be voted on this week, there is a dangerous provision affecting people of faith which states that the funds from the stimulus bill will not be able to be used to improve facilities that are "used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity...."

Today is Religious Freedom Day. It is very interesting that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil liberties' groups are not championing a free speech decision handed down on January 12th by the United States Supreme Court. Maybe it is because the decision handed a great victory to the pro-life movement.

The "California Catholic Daily," in yesterday's article entitled "No double standard for pro-life speech," said that the nation's highest court denied "appeal of ruling in favor of California pro-lifers who drove truck with graphic photos of aborted baby around public school." The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had appealed a lower federal court ruling last year that deputies violated the constitutional rights of two pro-life protesters who were detained for 75 minutes and then ordered to leave the area after they drove a truck depicting an aborted baby past a California public school.

Christian Coalition of America's grassroots put a tremendous amount of effort into getting President George W. Bush's "strict constructionist" judicial nominees through, especially the efforts expended to get Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito and circuit court of appeals nominees confirmed.